The Fanged Four: The Drabble Collection
by babies-stole-my-dingo
Summary: A set of drabbles starring Angelus, Darla, Spike, and Drusilla, back in the day. Not all drabbles will have all characters, and some of them are just the Fanged Three, but all take place in that time period.
1. Madness Beckons

  
_Title:_ **Madness Beckons**  
_Fandom:_ Angel  
_Rating:_ PG-13  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community TV100's "Abandoned Dreams" challenge.  
_Notes:_ Dru's POV during Angel #27 "Dear Boy" in the convent.

* * *

_Run and catch, run and catch, the lamb is caught in the blackberry patch..._

Only I'm the lamb, and the blackberry patch I'm caught in is filled with monsters. The sisters were supposed to chase away the voices in my head; instead they've spilled out over the floor and the voices are louder than ever. The demons are doing unspeakable, impossible things, and the pixies whisper-shout that I'll be next.

I no longer care. Lost in the labyrinth of my mind, all I can do is laugh and laugh as fangs pierce my throat and the monster drinks deep...


	2. William's Rising

  
_Title:_ ** William's Rising**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vamire Slayer  
_Rating:_ G  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Open on Sunday's Elements Challenge Drabble  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine; they belong to Joss. Just borrowing.  
_Notes:_ Hey, I got all four (fire, earth, water, and air) in. Go, me!

* * *

His eyes flew open and he gasped in a breath of unneeded air. Trapped! His fingernails scrabbled against the satin overhead, tore through it and the stuffing, finally splintered on the wood of the box. Raw, bloody, his hands pounded on the mahogany, preternatural strength helping him to break it apart. Soil fell on his face, and he tunneled frantically through the dirt. He thought he'd never arrive at the surface...until his head finally erupted into the rainy London night. His dark princess waited there, clapping her hands in delight.

"Come, sweet William. And bring your burning baby fish."


	3. Effulgency

  
_Title:_ **Effulgency**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Challenge100's #8b "Abstract Colors" challenge.  
_Notes:_ Takes place during William's story in BtVS 5:7 "Fool for Love."

* * *

_My heart expands  
'Tis grown a bulge in it  
Inspired by your beauty  
...Effulgent._

Well, all right, it was a bit...purple. But feelings were like that, weren't they? And his feelings overwhelmed him, and they had to come out somehow, and she was just so beautiful that he couldn't help it. But she'd laughed at him. They all had. "William the Bloody Awful Poet," indeed.

Then lovely, mad Drusilla had come to him. Now he was something to be feared, not mocked. He'd show her, show them all. That remark about railroad spikes?

Time to make it come true.


	4. Poet

  
_Title:_ **Poet**  
_Author:_ babies stole my dingo (agilebrit)  
_Fandom:_ Angel  
_Rating:_ PG  
_Length:_ Drabble (100 words)  
_Disclaimer:_ Joss is the genius behind these characters; I am but a lowly follower. I make no money from any of this, so please don't sue me.  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Wordoftheday100's "chagrin" challenge.

* * *

_My sanguine princess  
Delectable blood drips  
Like jeweled wine  
From her ruby lips._

"Oh! For me?" Dru clasped the poem to her heart. "I must show Daddy and Grandmother." Before he could stop her, she gave him a peck on the cheek and ran out. Every muscle tense, he heard her voice, a pause, then explosive laughter.

He dropped his head in chagrin. He could no more stop writing poetry than stop eating--but he wouldn't show it to anyone, ever again.

Dru flounced back into their room. "They enjoyed it quite a bit, sweet William. You must write more."


	5. Gamboling Dollies

  
_Title:_ **Gamboling Dollies**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG-13 for disturbing imagery, but nothing that happens "onscreen," so to speak.  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Wordoftheday100's "Gambol" challenge  
_Notes:_ Well. That's a very Dru-like word....Wonder what would happen if she visited an orphanage?

* * *

Look at all the lovely dollies gamboling about in the playroom. I've heard they don't have a Mummy, which makes me sad. Perhaps one would like me for a Mummy. That boy dolly over there looks like William must have as a child. I'm cross at William and Daddy. They went out to play tonight and left me all alone.

Ooh! I bet William and Daddy would like a present! The dollies scream when the glass breaks. Don't be frightened, darlings. I'll only punish you if you're naughty.

See? That's what I meant. You shouldn't have tried to run away.


	6. To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

  
_Title:_ **To Sleep, Perchance to Dream**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ G  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Joss is the genius behind these characters; I am but a lowly follower.  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Challenge100's "Sleep" challenge.

* * *

"My Spike." Dru opened her eyes and smiled drowsily. 

"Tell me what you saw, pet." In the few years since his turning, Spike had come to value her visions.

A tiny line of concentration appeared between her exquisite eyebrows. "Troubling things. A horrid little trinket going 'bzzt bzzt bzzt.' My dark knight in a white hat. A Slayer with a golden chain around your heart. And a Blue Fairy, come to make you and Daddy real boys again."

He stroked her hair and gave her a tolerant smile. "No worries, poodle. Not all your fancies come to pass, after all."


	7. Stratagem

  
_Title:_ **Stratagem**  
_Fandom:_ Angel  
_Rating:_ PG, I guess. They're drinking in a pub.  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Written for:_ The LJ Community wordoftheday100's "ken" challenge

* * *

"Look, Will. I ken you think you love our Dru. But you haven't earned the right to have her yet, boy," Angelus said, signaling for another round.

William stared at Angelus appraisingly over the rim of his pint. He wasn't going to let this bloody Irish lout keep him away from Dru. Open defiance was out of the question, but he might have discovered a way, untraceable to him, to solve this little dilemma. After all, the gypsies were encamped outside town. If he made the right sort of suggestion to Darla...the problem might go away on its own.


	8. Fear

  
_Title:_ **"Fear"**  
_Fandom:_ Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
_Rating:_ PG for offscreen bloodshed and general psycho meanness  
_Words:_ 100  
_Disclaimer:_ Not mine, they're Whedon's. sob  
_Notes:_ Angelus' POV

* * *

Fear. It's intoxicating. The adrenaline that dumps into the arteries and veins when a person is out and out terrified makes the blood that much sweeter. And when you can expand on it, make more than one person feel the same fear...well. A simple work of art will turn into a masterpiece if you can get an entire family involved. Even better if you can involve a clan, or a village.

But...it's backfired. That gypsy girl Darla gave me was most beloved of her kin, and they've extracted a terrible revenge. And now I'm the one who's afraid.


	9. Masqued Ball

  
_Title:_ **Masqued Ball**  
_Author:_ babies stole my dingo (agilebrit)  
_Fandom:_ Angel  
_Rating:_ PG-13  
_Length:_ Drabble (100 words)  
_Disclaimer:_ Joss is the genius behind these characters; I am but a lowly follower. I make no money from any of this, so please don't sue me.  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Challenge100's "Dance" challenge.  
_Notes:_ The Fanged Four go to a masquerade.

* * *

"Ooh! Look at all the pretty dancers, my Spike. Shall we join them?" Dru clapped her hands in delight, and he could hear the smile in her voice. Spike squired his dark princess down the sweeping staircase to the ballroom floor, and they joined the costume ball. Blending in seamlessly, they twirled around amongst the celebrants, occasionally passing Darla and Angelus and exchanging loaded glances with them. The revelers' masks would all come off at midnight. 

Then a party of a different sort would begin, as the vampires shook off their human masks and began a feast of their own.


	10. Playing

  
_Title:_ **Playing**  
_Author:_ babies stole my dingo (agilebrit)  
_Fandom:_ Angel  
_Rating:_ PG-13  
_Length:_ Drabble (100 words)  
_Disclaimer:_ Joss is the genius behind these characters; I am but a lowly follower. I make no money from any of this, so please don't sue me.  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Open On Sunday's "Playing" challenge.  
_Notes:_ The Fanged Four have a little game.

* * *

"We've played to a draw again," Darla pouted. "No one ever wins this game."

Angelus drew a fresh grid on the girl's bare back, using a knife this time. "Your turn to go first." He licked the blade, smiling, while their bound and gagged victim moaned on the floor.

"What are you two doing?" Spike asked from across the room, idly toying with Dru's hair. They'd already eaten.

Darla drew an "X" in the center square with her sharpened nail, baring her teeth as the blood oozed from the wound.

"They're playing tic-tac-toe with their food. Naughty, naughty," Dru giggled.


	11. Fool for Love

  
_Title:_ **Fool for Love**  
_Author:_ babies stole my dingo (agilebrit)  
_Fandom:_ Angel  
_Rating:_ PG-13  
_Length:_ Drabble (100 words)  
_Disclaimer:_ Joss is the genius behind these characters; I am but a lowly follower. I make no money from any of this, so please don't sue me.  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Wordoftheday100's "Oblivion" and "Macabre" challenge.  
_Notes:_ Some dialog cribbed directly from BtVS S5 ep 85 "Fool for Love," written by Doug Petrie. A Fanged Four drabble.

* * *

The dark, macabre lady opened my collar. "I see what you want. Something glowing and glistening. Something...effulgent."

I'd never met anyone like her. My sheltered existence kept me sequestered from women--which was probably why I'd made such a horrible hash of my declaration to Cecily. This girl, though, she saw straight to my heart, extracted the core...and loved me. I fell in love with her as well, right then and there.

Her face changed, and sharp fangs sank into my throat. As oblivion claimed me, my last thought was that nothing would be the same, ever again.


	12. Freedom?

  
_Title:_ **Freedom?**  
_Author:_ babies stole my dingo (agilebrit)  
_Fandom:_ Angel  
_Rating:_ PG  
_Length:_ Drabble (100 words)  
_Disclaimer:_ Joss is the genius behind these characters; I am but a lowly follower. I make no money from any of this, so please don't sue me.  
_Written for:_ 's "Freedom" challenge.  
_Notes:_ Takes place during Angel 5:08 "Destiny."

* * *

Fettered and bound by the constraints of Victorian society, William felt himself unfold like a rose now that he was a vampire. No, not a harmless rose, he told himself; a Venus flytrap. Innocuous-looking but deadly. The people who'd laughed him to scorn at the party that night found themselves laughing out of the other sides of their faces--literally, in a few instances.

But Angelus had pruned him back, right enough. And instead of freedom, a new kind of limitation was being imposed on him, born of physical power rather than conventional reticence.

Bloody hell. He just couldn't win.


	13. Artistic Souls

  
_Title:_ **Artistic Souls**  
_Author:_ babies stole my dingo (agilebrit)  
_Fandom:_ Angel  
_Rating:_ G  
_Length:_ Drabble (100 words)  
_Disclaimer:_ Joss is the genius behind these characters; I am but a lowly follower. I make no money from any of this, so please don't sue me.  
_Written for:_ LJ Community TV100's "self-expression" challenge.  
_Notes:_ A Fanged Four drabble. Remember how Angel said he liked Spike's poetry?

* * *

Angelus walked into the room in time to see a balled-up piece of paper hit the wall and hear William's growl. "Problem, boy?" He picked up one of several crumpled efforts and straightened it out. "What's this, then?" Drusilla smiled up at him, barely recognizable.

"I can't capture her like you can." William threw the charcoal pencil down, frustrated.

Angelus didn't have room in his cold, black heart for pity, but he recognized a fellow creative spirit. "This isn't your medium, laddie." He rummaged in the desk and found an inkwell and quill pen. "Maybe you should try these instead."


	14. Still Trying

  
_Title:_ **Still Trying**  
_Author:_ babies stole my dingo (agilebrit)  
_Fandom:_ Angel  
_Rating:_ PG-13  
_Length:_ Drabble (100 words)  
_Disclaimer:_ Joss is the genius behind these characters; I am but a lowly follower. I make no money from any of this, so please don't sue me.  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Wordoftheday100's "pulchritude, turpitude, incubus, bete noire" challenges.  
_Notes:_ A Fanged Four drabble. Spike's trying to write poetry again...

* * *

Bloody hell. No matter how he tried, he couldn't stop, and poetry had become the bete noire of his existence.

_My black goddess of pulchritude  
I will be your incubus  
As we revel in our turpitude_

Spike flung the balled-up paper against the wall-then jumped up and rescued it, frantically smoothing the page. Angelus walked in just then, cocking a sardonic eyebrow at him. "Writing again, boy?"

He shielded his nascent poem. "A bit."

"Let me see it when you're done." Angelus clapped him on the shoulder.

Spike stared. "I'll do that." _When hell freezes over, you Philistine bastard..._


	15. Valentine's Gift

  
_Title:_ **Valentine's Gift**  
_Author:_ babies stole my dingo (agilebrit)  
_Fandom:_ Angel  
_Rating:_ PG-13  
_Length:_ Drabble (100 words)  
_Disclaimer:_ Joss is the genius behind these characters; I am but a lowly follower. I make no money from any of this, so please don't sue me.  
_Written for:_ LJ Community Open On Sunday's "Valentine" challenge.  
_Notes:_ A Fanged Four drabble.

* * *

"Where have you two been?" Darla demanded. "It's almost sunrise."

"Sorry, dearest," Angelus answered, giving her a peck on the lips. "Willie-boy had to find the perfect St. Valentine's Day gift for his Drusilla."

"And did he?"

Angelus turned them so they were facing Spike and Dru. Spike shyly handed Dru a box, which she opened eagerly, like a child. She lifted what was in it out, holding it up to her cheek momentarily before taking a hungry bite out of it. "Oh, my Spike! A human heart! And it's still warm. You do bring me the nummiest treats, darling."


End file.
